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TV's "Mr. Wizard," Don Herbert, Dies At 89
XorNand writes "Television's Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert, died today at 89. He introduced generations of young viewers to the joys of science. Herbert, who had bone cancer, died at his suburban Bell Canyon home near Los Angeles."
http://www.mrwizardstudios.com/
Predictably, though, the site is just about impossible to get to right now. Judging from the Google cache there are 8 DVDs each with 4 episodes, for $17.95 each.
The last one I can think of is Bill Nye. Other than Bill, I'm not sure. It's kind of sad. I just saw him on TV the other month for something but I can't remember what.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
He turned on an entire generation of kids to science. Surely I'm not the only one who used to wake up before school at 6 AM to watch Mr. Wizard on Nickelodeon before school?
That was his second show.
His first one turned on many (including me) in my generation (now becoming eligible for Senior Citizen Discounts).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It was Lycopodium Powder.
Digression: I remember being amazed by that experiment, and tons of other things that I saw on that show. I especially remember the demonstration where he used a vaccuum pump to suck grape juice up in a tube. It only went up so far, and he explained how the best vaccuum pump in the world wouldn't do any better because of the limited pressure at the bottom.
I really learned a lot of science from his show.
2. The Density of a fluid does matter. The denser a fluid is, the lower the height the pressure of the atmosphere can support it. So, ocean water, being denser than distilled or fresh water, can't be supported up to a full 32ft. Mercury, being exceptionally dense, over 13 times as dense as water, can only be supported to a height of 760 millimeters.
The last fact I mentioned is why barometers are traditionally made using mercury. In order to accurately measure atmospheric pressure (useful in meteorology) you need to be able to see changes in the height of a fluid column (before we got more advanced equipment anyway). Water is obviously inconvenient for this, requiring a column 32 ft high, although it is very precise, because minute changes in pressure cause large fluctuations in the height of the column. This is why mm*Hg (millimeters of mercury) is a standard unit of pressure, with 760mm*Hg = 1atm.
The caveat I mentioned above is that the pressure exerted on a body 10m under the surface in the ocean is higher, but only because salt water is denser than fresh water. It has nothing to do with the size of the body.
I was searching for "Mr. Wizard" on Google Video for some cool clips and even episodes, and stumbled this interview that you people might be interested:
... all and radio before turning to television where he created the classic children's science series "Watch Mr. Wizard". He details his hosting of the show, as well as working with his young assistants. He talked about his simultaneous work as "G.E. Theatre's" "progress reporter," hosting a different three-minute commercial segment for each episode through the majority of run. He talks about the later incarnations of the "Mr. Wizard" franchise. He also mentions his appearances on morning and late-night television talk shows."
"In his four-part (each part is posted separately) oral history interview, host Don Herbert describes his early years as an actor on stage
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Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
You probably remember watching Mr. Wizard's World in the '80s. I remember watching Watch Mr. Wizard in the '50s. He inspired not one, but two generations, and that's something to be proud of!
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